People standing in a specific location (in a museum, in a shop or in a tourist place, . . . ) may want to use their mobile terminal to make comments or give information to other people (with mobile terminals) who will in the future be standing in or near that specific location. The comments can be a short text message, voice message or a video/photo that is somehow related to that specific location. For example, a person may want to give their opinion about a certain restaurant in a shopping center. In contrast, some people may want to use their mobile terminal to receive information about the specific location at which they are currently located without having to surf the web to find information that is associated with that specific location. In the same example, another person may want to hear what other people think about the certain restaurant in that particular shopping center.
There a various solutions available today that people with mobile terminals can use to exchange notes or videos about a specific geographical location such as (for example):
1) Web Sites, Blog: Solutions based on the Interent enables people to post comments or videos that are related to a specific location. However, the location information is not automatically taken into account when another person is located near that specific location and wants to retrieve messages (personal content) about that specific location. In particular, the search engine does not have a native feature to retrieve messages (personal content) that are linked to a precise geographic position.
2) TV broadcasting, message broadcasting: Solutions based on TV broadcasting enables the broadcast of notifications, TV shows or messages to selected mobile terminals. However, these solutions do not propose a feature to broadcast messages (personal content) which are related to a specific geographic location to mobile terminals which are located near that specific geographic location.
3) Participation TV: Participation TV is a relatively new activity that allows people to turn their mobile terminals into an active social experience. For instance, people can use their mobile terminals so they can act as contestants in quizzes or can take the role of quizmaster which is more interactive than just sending an answer to a question by using a short message service (SMS). However, this solution does not consider the specific geographic location of the participant when forwarding or receiving messages (personal content) from or to that participant.
As can be seen, there is a need to have a solution (or service) that enables end-users of mobile terminals to exchange messages that are associated with a specific geographical location. In particular, there is a need that enables a first end-user to use their mobile terminal to create and submit a message related to a specific geographical location where the submitted message is stored in a service platform. And, there is a need that enables a second end-user to use their mobile terminal to retrieve the stored message and possibly other stored messages associated with the specific geographical location whenever the second mobile terminal is located near that specific geographical location. These needs and other needs are satisfied by the present invention.